Technique (with its power to transform and the fascination it produced) was at the centre of cultural debates and those concerning architecture at the beginning of the twentieth century. Within the framework of the cultural programme of "Noucentisme" in Catalonia, technique was to play a fundamental role towards modernization and social and cultural development. For a better understanding of the impact these ideas yielded, the thesis develops three lines of parallel research: a/ on the mentality of the architect (his formative years, the acknowledgment of the debate taking place abroad through magazines and international conferences or through scientific outings); b/ on the collective representations of the Catalan identity (the vernacular facet in the transformation of the Catalan countryside, the proposals for a "house" for the middle class and the final rays of a deep rooted "Catalan construction") and its political action (the conflicts between the new and the old institutions); c/ on the transformation of the construction sector (Taylorism, the introduction of reinforced concrete and the assimilation of the steel skeleton). To sum up, between 1903 and 1929 a profound modernization in architectural technique took place despite the fact that many of its signs have been partially erased by the political events that followed (two dictatorships and a war) and a long period of economic depression between 1929-1952.

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